Jail and Prison Records

Tutorial: Jail and Prison Records

Introduction

People arrested or charged with state crimes in Calfornia who can’t post bail usually are kept in a county jail facility while their cases are pending.

People charged with federal offenses often are also housed in a county jail facility while their cases are pending (the federal government contracts with county jails for this).

People convicted of state crimes can be sentenced to continue to serve time in the county jail or they could be sentenced to state prison for more serious felony offenses.

People convicted of federal crimes will be sentenced to a federal prison or penitentiary.

Generally if you know the name of an inmate, you can obtain the following information from the local, state or federal corrections agencies that have the person in custody:

The prisoner’s date of birth or age

The prisoner’s incarceration identification number

The specific facility where the prisoner is being held

Sometimes the jails or prisons will also provide the date the person was first incarcerated, the court that referred the person to the jail or prison, the penal code section the person was charged with or convicted of violating, the scheduled release date of the prisoner if any, and even a record of prior incarcerations of the person for other offenses.

County Jail

For people in county jail, contact the local County Sheriff’s Department, which usually runs the county jail (in rare cases a city may run a local jail, in which case contact that city’s police department).

State Prison

For people in state prison, contact state corrections or prison officials. In California that’s the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Federal Prison

For people in federal prison, contact the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Prison and Jail Records Online

Many prisons and jails have online databases for locating inmates.

Federal Prison Inmate Database

The Federal Bureau of Prisons has an online database of past and present inmates, and an Inmate Locator for searching by last name and first name. The website is here:

(this site also has historical records of inmates at many state prisons)

And a cautionary note: see this Texas Tribune story about errors in the prisoner database in that state.

County Jail Inmate Databases

Some county jails have made their inmate records available online.

The VINELink website also posts data from some county jails on inmates in custody. You can search the database by an inmate’s name to determine if they’re in custody and get their inmate ID number, date of birth and other information.

You can also check the websites of county sheriff’s departments, which run the county jails. In California, the California Sate Sheriff’s Association keeps a list of sheriff’s websites and phone numbers:

San Francisco Bay Area County Jails

About this Tutorial

This tutorial was originally written by Paul Grabowicz for students in his Computer Assisted Reporting class, and later modified for public use.

Republishing Policy

This content may not be republished in print or digital form without express written permission from Berkeley Advanced Media Institute. Please see our Content Redistribution Policy at multimedia.journalism.berkeley.edu/content_redistribution/.